S.F. City College submits action plan

S.F. EDUCATION

The embattled City College of San Francisco met its first critical deadline Monday, submitting an action plan to the accreditation team that has threatened to close the school if it doesn't mend its free-spending ways and murky approach to decisions.

Most of the thick report on how the college will improve is as fascinating as a computer-repair manual, heaped with acronyms and references to rubrics and actions 3.0 or 2.1.

But those willing to tank up on caffeine and plow past the jargon will find that the school of 86,000 students is promising wholesale change. March 15 is its deadline to transform, Rocky-like, from a bloated, slow-thinking system of nine campuses into a lean, sharp-minded institution of higher learning.

One cost-cutting strategy is the closure of the Castro "campus" at 450 Church St., which is actually a set of middle school classrooms the college rents for $85,000 a year to offer night classes like tai chi.

City College also holds classes at more than 100 sites. It will close two Park Presidio sites and rent out its headquarters at 33 Gough St., says the report.

In September, The Chronicle wrote about a long list of cost-savings ideas featured in the college's draft action plan. These included ending sabbaticals ($800,000 a year) and requiring students to pay their fees before registering for classes ($400,000 a year). These ideas are in the final report but remain just proposals.

One firm change will be a metamorphosis of the college's decision-making system, which the accrediting team criticized as byzantine. More than 40 committees are consulted on matters involving curriculum, while department chairs wield more power than deans.

"You'll see more authority vested in deans and professional managers, which will free up more time for academics to teach," said spokesman Larry Kamer.